Jemimah Wei on the story behind her debut novel and what it means to be a writer in Southeast Asia

Tatler Asia

06-05-2025

The lack of a visible literary infrastructure in Southeast Asia, as compared to the American or British publishing worlds, has long posed a challenge. 'When I first started out, I didn't even know what an MFA was. I thought you just emailed a publisher [your manuscript]. I didn't know what a slush pile (a collection of unsolicited manuscripts) or a query letter was. I didn't even know how to ask the right questions.'
It was not until she met Aw and later moved to the US for her graduate studies that she began to absorb the tacit knowledge of the publishing world. '[In Singapore], you don't have the chance to do that as much.' However, this is changing, Wei points out, with authors such as Rachel Heng and Wen-yi Lee securing global book deals—a shift made possible by the growing access to international agents and publishing pathways. But the emotional terrain remains steep. 'If you don't have people who take your work seriously, you don't have that confirmation of your artistic reality,' she observes. 'Without that, it's very easy to give up.'
For Wei, the community does not have to be big. But it has to be real. 'People use the word 'community' a lot, but it means friendship for me. You just need people who care enough to talk to you about your work seriously.'
Now that The Original Daughter is complete, Wei is learning to sit with the stillness that follows a long pursuit. 'It seemed conceivable that I would forever have this book simmering in the background while I write endless short stories and scripts,' she says. '[When you've been working on something] for a long time, your artistic identity can become co-dependent with it.' Completing it, she admits, was liberating. 'I feel very free to explore what the next stage will be.'
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